Field of the Invention
This invention relates to diffusion of essential oils and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for modularizing diffusers for mobile applications and simplified operation.
Background Art
Mechanisms exist for altering a closed environment such as a room or home with humidity. Likewise, mechanisms exist for removing humidity. Electronic and chemical mechanisms for destroying microbial sources of offensive scents exist. Meanwhile, sprays, evaporators, wicks, candles, and so forth also exist to vaporize and distribute volatile scents, essential oils, alcohols or other liquids bearing scents, and so forth. These may be introduced into breathing air, an atmosphere of a room, or any other enclosed space.
Heating often destroys, or at least changes, the constitution of essential oils. Thus, it has limitations. However, the evaporation rates or atomization rates of essential oils are often insufficient to provide a controllable, sustainable, and sufficient amount of an essential oil into the atmosphere. Thus, wicks having no positive breakup mechanism or no air movement mechanism often prove inadequate.
Meanwhile, mechanisms that seek to copy vaporizers and moisture atomizers often damage surrounding equipment, furniture, and other environs of a space being treated by overspray or settling out of essential oils. Moreover, the continuing “spitting” by atomizers of comparatively larger droplets not only causes damage to finishes on surrounding surfaces, but wastes a substantial fraction of the essential oil.
Essential oils are concentrated sources of aromas or scents. Their extraction from source plants is sometimes complicated, and always comparatively expensive, based on the cost per unit volume of the essential oil. Therefore, colognes, other fragrancing systems, and the like often use comparatively high tractions of diluents for essential oils. They also use synthetic oils and artificial scents that may not replicate the comforting, familiar, and natural essence of essential oils.
By whatever mode, systems to distribute essential oils often waste an expensive commodity while damaging surroundings about their atomizers or other distribution systems. Thus, it would be an advance in the art to provide an apparatus and method for distributing essential oils in as small particles as possible, preferably vaporized or else suspending in air permanently, while protecting surrounding areas. It would be an advance to do so while retrieving and recycling for re-atomization or diffusion any droplets that are larger than those that may be sustained against gravity by fluid dynamic drag or by effectively Brownian motion once discharged into surrounding air.
It would also be an advance in the art to improve diffusers to make them smaller, more compact, and more mobile so they may be used in a particular room, moved from room to room, or even carried in a vehicle. Adding aromas to vehicles has long been the purview of poorly constructed and short-lived, absorbent materials suspended by a tether from a mount of a rear view mirror. Effective selection of scent, duration and intensity of scent, and other desirable controls have been effectively absent. Moreover, the complexities of controls have likewise been a deterrent to rapid and simplified mechanisms for selecting an effective operational cycle.
It would be an advance in the art to provide an integrated control mechanism that effectively limits a number of decisions, and perhaps even choices, simplifying and integrating them into parameters that may be more readily understood selected. In some embodiments, it would be a substantial benefit to a user to have a system that integrates information from a user, translates it into operational characteristics of a diffuser, and automatically sets the controlling parameters without the common trial and error or unknown consequences typically imposed on a user.